Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.

Thought for the Morning
5-28

Doubt Leads to Damnation

"He who doubts is damned."
Paul, in Romans

If you have a doubt about whether or not a certain deed is good or evil, play it safe and avoid it. In the above Scripture, Paul was teaching that if a deed causes condemnation to rise in your heart, God is warning you that He will damn you in the coming Final Judgment for it unless you repent. That sense of guilt is God's voice talking to you. In a sermon delivered in 1980, Preacher Clark said the same thing this way: "Where there is a doubt, there is a damn."

What these two men of God were teaching is that if your heart condemns you, that means that you are not living up to the standard God has set for you. And if you are doing things that your heart condemns you for doing, then you cannot stand before God in the judgment with a clean conscience. Condemnation is deadly for the soul; it is God's measuring stick that He has created within your heart to let you know what is permitted for you and what is not, and that internal standard cannot be avoided. It is there, and it is not going to go away.

Paul wrote, "Blessed is the man who is not condemned by what he allows himself to do" (Rom. 14:22). If you are doing only what God has put in your heart as acceptable to do, you are a very blessed person. Those who live according to such a standard will be saved in the end, and those who do not will spend eternity in the Lake of Fire. It doesn't get any simpler than that.

Daily Thoughts

In Isaiah 55, we are told that God's thoughts are not our thoughts and that God's thoughts are as far from men as the heavens are from the earth. These collections of thoughts were given to Pastor John from the holy Spirit of God. For God to condescend to man, and to give His thoughts to him is a rare and precious thing. That is why these thoughts are so valuable.

These thoughts can cheer the hearts of the discouraged; bring unity to divided situations and, speak words of life and hope at the most needed times. Many of the experiences, teachings, and thoughts in this book came from Pastor John's father, George C. "Preacher" Clark. "Preacher Clark" was also a man anointed by God with a message for God's children. So these collections include nearly a century of experience in the things of God and doctrinal truths sent by the holy Ghost to true pastors.